he system is designed to increase control and savings by scheduling charging to avoid costly spikes in electricity demands and ensure the correct rotation of batteries. The system also takes advantage of off-peak electricity rates by setting power thresholds for specific times.
John Lawton, EnerSys’ European marketing director, says: “Scheduling power consumption to minimise peak charges while achieving optimum life and service from batteries is the goal of good battery management.”
It is compatible with up to ten battery families and more than 500 chargers. No data input is required, but each battery family and the types of truck are given names to enable easy identification. All data is displayed on a battery room screen that shows the next battery to be used, available batteries and battery equalisation charging and defaults meaning it is no longer necessary to assign batteries to specific trucks. Battery performance and service life are also improved.
PowerNet runs on a standard PC and allows management reports to be accessed remotely via a LAN or internet connection. It automatically switches chargers on and off at the best time to maintain electricity consumption within the chosen parameters.
Reports include a charge analysis to view the number of complete, incomplete, equalisation charges and charging errors; an alarm history to indicate when a wrong battery has been selected; the minimum/ maximum number of charged batteries that are available and the number of battery changes; the fleet utilisation and the batteries’ depth of discharge; and power consumption graphs and a record of automatic charger off/on events.
